Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho, Marcus Rashford of Manchester United, Alex Iwobi of Arsenal and Dele Alli of Tottenham Hotspur are among the 40 nominees for the 2016 Golden Boy award, run by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport and awarded to Europe’s most impressive footballer under the age of 21.

Last year’s winner was Anthony Martial, with Paul Pogba and Raheem Sterling other recent recipients.

The award, founded in 2003, relates to performances across a particular calendar year, with the winner decided by a panel of 30 journalists. Among the favourites this time round are Kingsley Coman and Renato Sanches of Bayern Munich, while Ousmane Dembélé of Borussia Dortmund and Gianluigi Donnarumma of AC Millan have also been extremely impressive.

In addition to Iheanacho, Rashford, Iwobi and Alli, seven other UK-based players are nominated, including Leroy Sané of Manchester City, Moussa Dembélé of Celtic, Marko Grujic of Liverpool, Demarai Gray of Leicester City and Ruben Loftus-Cheek of Chelsea, as well as Nathan, on loan from Chelsea to Vitesse, and Andreas Christensen, on loan from Chelsea to Borussia Mönchengladbach.